3-10-26; 2pm | Climate-Doomerism, Spirituality, and the Fallout of Individualism

Hello all! I am writing from my porch again! It has become my preferred spot for sitting and observing a world worth loving. My porch is a mess, by the way. It has cigarette filters from my roommate that doesn't know how to throw them away. and several couches degraded by the elements of east Nashville weather.

Despite this, it is a holy place.

Stratus Clouds loom overhead today as if they've asked you something and are waiting to be given an answer. The local bird population is completely indifferent to the impending rain and are singing to each other as warmly as usual. The faint scent of tea lingers in the air (I made tea... It's still part of the environment as far as I'm concerned), and the humidity is as normal as it ever can be in the south east temperate forests of the United States.

I've been thinking about the world as it exists and how different that is or is not from the world that will exist several years from now. I have reason to think that birds will still ignore the weather (our climate projections would suggest they will have to) and I will likely still be somewhere on a balcony sipping tea and feeling the air on my skin. That feels strange to me. While I wouldn't consider myself a pessimist, I'm not infatuated with where we are or where we are heading. Our AI outlook doesn't strike me as something to look forward to (at the moment*), and as much as I personally loathe our political landscape, I much more so hate what it means environmentally. For those of you not up to date, we have crossed the line: environmental factors of ocean acidification, carbon-sink collapse, global atmosphere metrics, and biodiversity reduction were not reduced in time to eliminate the climate crisis situation that only a decade ago was considered to be the biggest threat to our species. Current estimates for the next couple decades even if we focus all of our attention on putting our carbon footprint below net neutral include starvation for potentially billions.
In the words of David Suzuki,
"I’ve never said this before to the media, but it’s too late. I say that because I go by science.."

To be clear, we will not all die in the next ten years. There will me more to humanity, but it, factually, will include a large sum of suffering that we could've avoided them. People will eat less, die earlier, and it will be understood that it was the direct result of our inability to use the systems that govern us for the wellbeing of humanity. That's just insane to me. The structures that we use to dictate our efforts and our lives, our government and our economies, were not interested in the wellbeing of billions of lives to come more than billions of dollars to be hoarded. This line of thinking upsets me because I struggle to find a hole in it, and I want to. I'd like to say that it is the elite, the republicans, "the man", but I cannot. It is the system of capital that exists at our expense. I'm not a communist or a socialist, I'm just some guy. Quite frankly on my more idealistic days I am closer to a capitalist than anything; I like to think the idea can be done well. What seems to be objectively true is that it has not been done well. It doesn't matter if it can or not, it hasn't been.

I was speaking with one of the regulars at my coffee shop yesterday and one of the topics she raised seemed relevant. With risk of misrepresenting her words, I will summarize it as, "We are the first generation to actively mourn the time we're living in". Previous generations had plenty to mourn, of course, but it was cushioned by either the promise that things will be better in the future or that things are already better than they were. For those born late enough to be raised on the internet (hello, I am one of you) we only knew that things were bad and over our lives we have only seen them get worse. This is of course a product of media sensationalism more than anything, especially for social and geopolitical topics. Maybe the world is getting worse, but we're also seeing the longest average lifespans and highest literacy rates in our species existence.

That being said, things like climate are objectively different. We're crossing thresholds that hadn't been crossed since before our genus* existed. We're finding microplastics in our own brains. We're losing species that we shouldn't and decimating biospheres that predate civilizations. These are things that we wouldn't even consider mourning until the early 2000s, when the gravity of the situation barely started to become apparent. Since then, our world leaders have said it matters or it didn't exist, and either way the action that followed the statement was inspired by apathy.

To be a person that is barely aware of the world's state is to subject yourself to a catalyst for either nihilism, avoidance, or hate. I understand all of these. To be completely frank, I think all of these are appropriate responses to the situation. I think it is in poor taste to tell anyone that they are mourning incorrectly, and likewise I think it is in poor taste to tell people that they shouldn't be nihilistic, avoidant, or angry about the state of things. The number of times I've heard, "well that response isn't going to solve the problem" in a TikTok comment section makes me sad, because it implies that your emotional response to a planetary issue needs to be a resolution for it. We are all observers and victims of the situation, and to berate a teenager online for their observation of a problem seems silly to me. The cost of patience is not high enough for this, in my opinion.

I think we are on the cusp of a spiritual resurgence in response to a world that seems like it is out to get us. A million factors play into this; media consumption has led to a decrease in ability to feel fulfilled, suffering is no longer seeming avoidable by financial means, the American dream and all of its proxy-dreams are missing in action. For every reason, I expect the world (especially the western world) to turn to spirituality again. We have a habit of doing that after we scare ourselves. If I put money on anything I'd say Buddhism is set up for success across the US and much of Europe. A set of beliefs built around the experience of suffering and how best to handle it seems well suited to take over here. As a Taoist I'd like to think that the Tao's fanbase will grow but honestly it might be a little bit too disorganized from a structural standpoint.

Much of why I think that is that I, once a devout evangelical Christian turned semi-militant atheist, have found spirituality to be an antidote to much of the existential anxiety that accompanies living on our planet. I'm not necessarily a hippie or a fan of "woo woo spiritual bullshit", but I recognize that whatever spirituality is has been a core trait of humanity for much longer than structured society. I'd like to distinguish spirituality from religion here; while much of early human religion was closely tied to science (a method to make sense of an irrational world), spirituality has been and continues to be much more closely related to psychology (the observation of and interaction with the self / the mind).

For me, even when I would've still called myself an atheist, I found "spirituality" in the woods. I would have told you that the woods were holy to me because of what they represented to me, and in some way I still believe that. Now, at the wise old age of 23 in which I know everything, I will just tell you that the woods are holy. It doesn't matter why they're holy to me now, but I felt the need to defend myself when I was younger. I was a product of how I was raised, I suppose, and I am now more of a product of my own cultivation of beliefs. This is a side tangent, but I think one reason spirituality is so powerful stems from the opportunity it gives you to evaluate and interrogate yourself without hate. You can do it with hate too, of course, but it isn't required. Many psychological traits that can only be approached as something to be resolved by psychiatry and psychology can simply be observed, augmented, or deconstructed without any labeling of "good" or "bad" in a spiritual framework.

We may need spirituality to be ok with the world. If we do, it won't be because observing our own souls makes at peace with our own suffering. The other interesting thing about spirituality is that it necessitates empathy (comedically and ironically, another factor to differentiate it from religion). I attended a local sangha (Buddhist church, basically) recently. While I'm not a Buddhist, I love to experience things and I want to do more experiencing with other people. It was good, nothing mind blowing, but the community aspect stuck out to me. I think what made it so significant was that the community aspect is so unexceptional. It is ubiquitous to the practice of spirituality for so many different beliefs. That is, to some degree, a "secret weapon". Being in an environment that requires you to not just consider others as individuals, but also to consider yourself as part of a group is an incredible antidote to the individualistic culture that we exist in. When I found myself meditating in a foreign room with roughly 20 people of varying ages and backgrounds, I was one of the 20-something people in that room more than I was myself with 20-something people.

I don't think you need to be in touch with your spirituality to find a peaceful existence. Just as I have met many people from many faiths that live fulfilling lives, I've also met people without faith that live fulfilling lives. I do think that you have to be part of a community, though. That seems to be a common denominator. For me, I've taken to going out of my way to build real friendships with people in my day to day life. Some of them are regulars at the coffee shop I work at, some are people I cross paths with in the bookstore. I recognize that when I pause to talk with someone, I can and should disregard the identity of myself and them alike. I am not an individual talking with an individual. We are two people connecting. There is no separation. They are nothing "to me" and I am nothing "to them"; we are just here together.

Greater meaning seems awesome but it isn't required when you decide that what you're doing right now matters. For me, writing matters. My friends matter. Art matters and my roommate's cat Witt matters. I think we have a habit of viewing speaking to someone as "collecting" and experience. If you can detach from that, and from the self that stands to collect anything, you are left only as the experience. If you are only the experience, you stand only to do good.

I haven't tallied the words up but I feel like this was a longer read. I appreciate you reading all of it! I've been working a lot and haven't been posting as much as I would in an ideal world, but I'm expecting to find a way to balance the two. I'm starting a new system for monetization. Previously I made the occasional post public and kept my more diary-style posts behind a paywall. Going forward I will still make bigger essays that I am especially proud of public, but I will also make whatever the latest of my "field notes" available for anyone, only going behind the paywall once a new one is posted. This seems like a good system for now; it allows anyone to read everything without being forced to pay me 6 dollars, and it allows anyone who just reeeaaallly loves my work to access the full backlog if they want. If you're a free reader here, know that I love and cherish you. I'm very grateful for your continued reading of my silly little ideas. If you are a paid reader here, you are one of a very select few. Know that I'm forever indebted and your contribution goes towards my ever-growing tea collection.